Page 109 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“No!” Lion yells. “I don’t give a shit about her rank. But fuck…” He rubs over his head. “She is my friend and my buddy’s sister. I never saw her as a… you know… available girl.”

I have put it together by now, or at least I think I did. “You found out you were mates on her birthday, right?” I ask quietly. “You had a shift and came later. Tori was outside when you arrived, and you must have bumped into her.”

“Yes,” Lion admits. “I climbed down from my motorbike, locked eyes with her, and I knew it.”

“And then?” Nox urges.

“I felt the mate bond,” he admits. “But then I realized it was Tori, and she is great and all, but it didn’t feel right. I was confused. And I think she was, too.”

“Did you tell her that she is stupid?” I ask.

“No!”

“That she is shallow and has no depth to her.”

He swallows and I know it’s true. “She started it,” he blurts out. “She was shocked we were mates, and not pleasantly so. Like it’s bad to be mated to me!”

“It’s not a competition, Lion,” I say. “It’s not a competition about who’s the biggest asshole.”

Terry crosses his arms in front of his body. “Fuck,” he mutters.

“And now?” Nox asks. “Do you want to reject her?”

“Are you insane!?” Lion blurts out. “I would never hurt Tori like that and reject her! I just don’t know how to do this… like this mate thing. It would have been so much easier with a stranger.”

“Funny you say that,” Terry says. “For me it’s the opposite.”

“That’s because you are in love with Marilou,” I say. “But Lion never viewed Tori as anything but his friend and your sister.”

“My point stands,” Terry says. “Tori and Lion are friends, but not super close. Technically, Tori is a stranger to him. What do you know about her?”

“Well,” Lion brushes through his hair again. “I don’t know…”

“Exactly. She isn’t just a shallow girl that likes shopping,” Terry points out.

“He is right,” I say. “Did you know that Tori regularly visits a retirement home for humans, to hang out with old residents who don’t have any family?”

Lion stares at me. “I had no idea.”

“She also likes Lego,” Terry points out. “She is obsessed with collecting and building their pieces.”

“She likes puzzles,” Nox adds. “She got a weird holographic one recently, where every piece looks the same. I helped her build it and almost went insane.”

“It blows my fucking mind that she likes these,” Terry agrees. “It will take her forever to piece this together.”

Lion stays quiet.

“You say you don’t want to reject her?” Terry asks.

“I would never,” Lion mutters. “But maybe she wants to.”

I remember how Tori has stayed away from all the other guys since her birthday, how sad she has been recently, and how drunk she got a couple of days ago. My heart aches for her. She has these huge expectations for love, and they are not fair to puton Lion, but it still sucks. She probably thought by his initial reaction that he didn’t want her, and then retaliated. Neither of them is great at communicating. “I doubt she wants to reject you,” I say.

We all stay silent, not sure what to say, before Arden breaks it. “I don’t know any of you much yet, but isn’t it cool to be mated to a person you already appreciate? I think not knowing who your mate is can be a scary feeling, especially for someone of lower rank. I have a disability, so I was pretty certain my mate wouldn’t want me. Of course, I got fortunate with who the Goddess chose for me, but I can imagine that Tori felt worried, too.”

“Of course you are lucky,” Lion says. “You are mated to Aurelia of all people! That’s a jackpot!”

Terry and Nox exchange a gaze. While Terry goes back to glaring at Lion, Nox rubs over his face and sighs.